LETTERS: Sobering Seventy-Five

Dear Editor,

Can you hold your breath for one minute, 15 seconds?
Seventy-five seconds.

One second for every year since atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Ask yourself: Are we (all of humanity) capable of living together with respect and humility for other countries and for one another?

As the U.S. and Russia continue to lead the global nuclear arms race, it appears, however, the outcries and pleas from Hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have not been in vain. “No more nuclear warfare!”

Seventy-five years later, the use of nuclear weapons is still counted on two fingers.

The determined and unfettered scientists of the Manhattan Project delivered Little Boy and Fat Man. Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a full-fledged global race to save lives by developing a virus antidote.

What saves more lives? An antidote for a pandemic virus? An antidote to counteract every weapon of destruction, from handguns to nuclear warheads? What about an antidote to curtail bogus human-centered entitlement and greed in the world?

Instead of only relying on scientists and politicians to work on antidotes, each of us has a mightier contribution to give: cultivate respect and humility in your heart for yourself, for others and for our entire world.

Now, hold your breath for seventy-five seconds. Inhale slowly and deeply.

Hold as long as you can. Exhale completely. Pause. Suck in/up life’s vulnerability and possibilities.